Clams

… accidentally. We’ve had a few daylight low tides so far this year, and once the sunlight hits the flats the algae starts growing like crazy on our clam nets. Seaweed is algae. And, just in case you might need it, here’s an idiot’s guide to algae: there’s microalgae, which is the kind that oysters […]

We’ve had geoduck babies in our downweller for about a month, and last night we took advantage of a really low tide (-3) to plant them out on the flats. The geoduck were growing in trays of sand, so the first step was washing them out of the sediment. As we know from experience, geoduck […]

As it turns out, the giant clams are ridiculous looking inside and out. Some locals slice the stomach up and add it to chowders… but no one will think less of you if you take a pass on that step. Read our geoduck cleaning guide here.

Purple varnish clams, aka mahogany clams or Nuttalia obscurata, are yet another transplant from Asia. About two decades ago they were introduced to the West Coast from ship’s ballast waters. Varnish clams are bimodal benthic feeders, which is a fancy way of saying they can filter food out of the sand and eat whenever they […]

Should you find yourself with a fresh geoduck on your hands, here’s what to do. 1. Cut the geoduck out of its shell. Be sure that you get all the tender meat off of the inside of the shell. 2. Remove shell and the guts. Notice the large round thing in the photo below? That’s […]

A couple of weeks ago we harvested a boatload of geoduck. They took over the retail live tank and proceeded to squirt salt water all over the store, completely trashing the place. Dorothy, Ona, and Beth came by when the geoduck were in town, and were quite impressed by the giant bivalves. The three ladies […]

People always come into the retail store asking for geoduck, and we always disappoint. But not this weekend: today Dave and Jim spent a few hours out on the nether reaches of the tideflats, digging geoduck. We have 25 or so the ducks available to sell. The price is $10 a pound, and the clams […]

Last fall one of our friends found a vein of petrified clams while building a road near Mineral, Washington. The three foot thick, forty foot long clam vein was found at 2800 feet in elevation. We were intrigued by the petrified clams, and began investigating. We started with Seattle-based geologist John LaManna, who said the […]

Native littleneck clam on the left, Manila steamer on the right. Manilas were introduced to Puget Sound along with the Pacific Oyster in the 1950s and, like the oyster, have since naturalized. They’re now the main clam species grown and harvested commercially in the Puget Sound, as their shells are hardier and they last longer […]

Appearance: 1. “Like the leathery snout of an aardvark” 2. an “eye-catching,” “monster . . . thing, of incredible longevity, with a certain . . . charisma.” 3. a “homely” “behemoth of the beach” Texture of neck when live: 4. “much like the skin of your elbow when your arm is straightened” Taste: 5. Like […]

The geoduck clam is the biggest clam in the world. Pictured here is a teensy two year old, but they can live to be 150 years old, or older. They frequently weigh more than 5 pounds. And yes, they’re ridiculous. Geoduck live deep in the sand, and while they can retract their neck to avoid […]